Malaysia Air Flight MH370: The Transponder Mystery
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WSJ has confirmed that the pilot had the ability to manually turn off the transponder on Flight MH370. A mid-air catastrophe could have destroyed it. Why is the transponder so significant? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.

The report said data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing 777’s engines indicated the plane remained in the air for a total of five hours – a further four hours after contact was lost.

“Officials were told investigators are actively pursuing the notion that the plane was diverted ‘with the intention of using it later for another purpose’,” the paper said, quoting an unnamed source.

A total flight time of five hours after departing Kuala Lumpur means the Boeing 777 could have continued for an additional distance of about 2,200 nautical miles, reaching points as far as the Indian Ocean, the border of Pakistan or even the Arabian Sea, based on the jet’s cruising speed, the paper said.

The latest revelation comes as no signs of the missing Malaysian jetliner were found at a spot where Chinese satellite images showed what might be plane debris, Malaysia’s civil aviation chief said in the five-day hunt for the plane.

“There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing,’’ Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

This image, first released by CCTV America, shows an object in the ocean spotted by Chinese satellites on Sunday. Picture: SuppliedSource: Supplied

Vietnamese officials previously said the area had been “searched thoroughly’’ in recent days.

The officials said the site in the South China Sea where Chinese satellite pictures allegedly showed the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had been “searched thoroughly’’ in recent days.

The reported sighting of wreckage was considered to be the first major lead in the search for the missing plane. China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) last night published three satellite images.

The images appeared to show three floating objects in the sea were captured just one day after the plane carrying 239 disappeared.

Chinese authorities and some aviation experts cautioned about the debris and said it could provide false hope.

China’s civil aviation chief, Li Jiaxiang, said there was no proof that the objects in the South China Sea were connected to the missing commercial aircraft.

One US official close to the plane investigation also said the Chinese satellite report was a “red herring.”

The Chinese satellite spotted three blips of varying sizes, the largest of which is 24m by 22m. The missing Boeing 777-200ER jet had a wingspan of 60.9 metres and a length of 63.7 metres.

Chinese agency SASTIND gave coordinates of 105.63 east longitude, 6.7 north latitude, which would put it in waters northeast of where MH370 took off in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, south of Vietnam and close to where the plane lost contact with air traffic control.

Pham Quy Tieu, deputy Vietnamese transport minister, told The Associated Press that the area had been “searched thoroughly” by forces from other countries over the past few days.

Tom Haueter, former aviation director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, was also sceptical that the images were connected with the missing jet.

“Any aircraft structure that size would sink. It wouldn’t float like this,” he said. “I don’t believe it’s the plane. We don’t have enough data to say what happened.”

Another satellite image, first released to CCTV America. Experts said the Chinese images are not high resolution. Picture: SuppliedSource: Supplied

However, another former US aviation safety official said the images represent the first solid lead consistent with the Malaysia Airlines plane’s flight path.

Peter Goelz, former managing director of the US federal National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN: “These (images) are the first solid piece of evidence we have that are on the correct flight path.”

Governments involved in the search have not confirmed whether the blips are the wreckage of the missing flight.

US Navy spokesman Commander William Marks, of the Seventh Fleet, said the SASTIND satellite data had not yet been corroborated by US satellites.

Search teams will be hoping to locate the aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter, which acts as a beacon. However, aviation experts have warned they do not always work when involved in a major crash into water, the BBC reports.

The black box can also act as an alert system, however the signal is not able to be detected over long distances.

The missing Boeing 777-200ER took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing at 12.41am local time (3:41am AEDT) on Saturday.

The plane vanished off the radar around 50 minutes later at 1.30am. No distress signal was sent.

An international air and sea search involving 12 countries has entered its sixth straight day, with authorities combing a search zone of 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 square km).

The search effort has focused on two areas, the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Malaysia Airlines announced it has retired the flight call signs MH370 and MH371 “out of a mark of respect.”

“As a mark of respect to the passengers and crew of MH370 on 8 March 2014, the MH370 and MH371 flight codes will be retired from the Malaysia Airlines’ Kuala Lumpur — Beijing/ Beijing — Kuala Lumpur,” the airliner said.

Last September, authorities issued a global warning regarding the structural integrity of 777 aircraft following reports of cracks and corrosion appearing in the fuselage skin, resulting in a “weak spot”.

Another possibility is that it continued to fly despite a failure of its electrical systems, which could have knocked out communications, including transponders that enable the plane to be identified by commercial radar.

Pilot disorientation and suicide have also been suggested, along with terrorism.